McKay Ciara, Ellis Kathryn, Haskell Marie J, Gladden Nicola
School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Front Vet Sci. 2025 Sep 8;12:1683861. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1683861. eCollection 2025.
We aimed to assess the impact of early life housing and play experiences on neonatal and weaned calves play behavior. A total of 96 female dairy calves were recruited from four Scottish dairy farms and assigned to individual ( = 48), paired ( = 24) or group ( = 24) housing at birth. Play behavior was measured using IceTag accelerometers (Peacock Technology, UK) during two experimental periods in the same cohort of calves, at neonatal and weaned stages. A mixed-effects negative binomial regression analysis was used to assess how early social housing influences the play behavior of neonatal and weaned calves. The analysis also considered the impact of early play on the play behavior of weaned calves. Calves housed in paired or group pens from birth performed significantly more neonatal play compared to calves housed individually from birth. No lasting effect of early life housing on weaned calf play behavior was observed. There was no correlation between counts of neonatal and weaned calf play. Calves with lower neonatal playfulness showed a numerical increase in play behavior after weaning compared to those with higher neonatal playfulness. These findings add to the growing body of literature indicating that early life social housing provides a more positive welfare experience for pre-weaned dairy calves. The study also highlights the need for future research to understand the impact of rearing experiences and different management systems on play behavior in weaned calves.
我们旨在评估早期生活中的饲养和玩耍经历对新生犊牛和断奶犊牛玩耍行为的影响。从四个苏格兰奶牛场招募了总共96头雌性奶牛犊，并在出生时将它们分配到单独饲养（n = 48）、成对饲养（n = 24）或群体饲养（n = 24）的环境中。在同一组犊牛的两个实验阶段，即新生阶段和断奶阶段，使用IceTag加速度计（英国孔雀技术公司）测量玩耍行为。采用混合效应负二项回归分析来评估早期社交饲养如何影响新生犊牛和断奶犊牛的玩耍行为。该分析还考虑了早期玩耍对断奶犊牛玩耍行为的影响。与出生后单独饲养的犊牛相比，从出生就成对或群体饲养的犊牛表现出显著更多的新生阶段玩耍行为。未观察到早期生活饲养对断奶犊牛玩耍行为有持久影响。新生犊牛和断奶犊牛的玩耍次数之间没有相关性。与新生阶段玩耍活跃度较高的犊牛相比，新生阶段玩耍活跃度较低的犊牛在断奶后玩耍行为在数值上有所增加。这些发现进一步丰富了越来越多的文献，表明早期生活中的社交饲养为断奶前的奶牛犊提供了更积极的福利体验。该研究还强调了未来研究的必要性，以了解饲养经历和不同管理系统对断奶犊牛玩耍行为的影响。
